William Thomas Statham (1694–1738) was listed in the town records of Shiregreen, England simply as a farmer. However records also show that he built five houses in Darnell and rented several properties in the area. The Sheffield city archives for Statham confirms that this is accurate. Many of the journal entries are in Latin proving he was a well-educated man. He writes about family lineage, schooling and prayers for each day of the week. His journal entries prove he was a religious man listing prayers to God the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, and excerpts from many books of the Bible. Also included are less spiritual details such as purchases and costs for ribbon, buttons and silk.

Scope and Content Note

This collection is made up of two parts: (1) a bound volume of auto-biographical notes written by Statham and (2) seven pages from Sheffield England City Library Archive entitled "William Statham's Autobiography & Property Rentals," which are in fact the first seven pages of Statham's handwritten autobiographical notes. These machine copied pages confirm that at least two full pages (pages 1-2) have been removed from Statham's journal.

Each of the 206 pages of the journal were written in high quality ink and on high quality paper and on both sides of each page.